They appealed to Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott and Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) director-general David Irvine to ''stop this torture of all of us''.

''We are willing to be released into the community under strict orders if they think we are threats, which we aren't,'' they said in the letter.

''But whatever they want we will do. But we can't keep living like this. We are not in detention. We are in a cemetery.''

The Tamil Refugee Council staged a demonstration in support of the imprisoned asylum seekers over the weekend, calling on the ASIO to stop deporting Tamils.

More than 50 refugees have received adverse ASIO assessments and been detained for up to three years, unable to challenge them and without knowing reasons behind their detainment.

Former Federal Court Justice Margaret Stone, who has been appointed to independently review the threats they pose to national security, visited the centre in Melbourne last week.

She told the group that they would now receive the reasons for being deemed a risk to the nation. But she warned that her recommendations could be ignored by the Australian security services as they were not binding.

One asylum seeker at the meeting, who has been detained for more than three years, told Fairfax Media: ''The fact that we don't know the exact time, we feel we are in a dark room. We can't do anything, our lawyers can't do anything. They're just keeping us in the dark by not giving us any time [frame] at all.''